Chapter 4. Rewards

Performance grade. That was the first thing that grabbed my attention in those notifications.

Did the system assess my fight with the monster? Or a minor abomination as it calls? How? What are the criteria for this assessment? Did me defeating alone also considered? If so, I could conclude that the risk factor was a criterion for the performance assessment, but that still doesn't answer why and how often I will be assessed. Every fight being assessed and an equivalent reward being handed out doesn't make sense. There had to be some pre-requisite to these evaluations and I had to find it to get the best rewards and ensure my survival.

A lot of questions came into my mind but I hadn't gotten the slightest clue to the solution of any of those. So, I went on to the last notification saying that the rewards had been deposited into my inventory. I had to take this chance and test out the functions of the inventory while I was there, recovering from the fight.

I opened my inventory to first check the rewards of the fight, or reward, I should say, for there was only one object in my inventory, shaped like a book, containing the picture of a lightning bolt on it.

I expanded the slot to get the details of my reward.

Skill book – Lightning steps (consumable)

Upon use, you will unlock the skill 'Lightning steps.'

Lightning Steps:

Increases your speed by [+50% * agility] for 20 seconds and can leave a trail of lightning behind while you run.

Zap: Those hit by your lightning trail will receive an electric shock with a chance of being affected by 'scalding' (damage by scalding = 0.1*agility under the effect of lightning steps).

Note: The use of lightning steps causes a massive drain to your stamina. Use under caution.

My eyes twinkled with excitement as I read the description of my reward.

A skill book! I just received a skill book! An amazing one at that.

The skill had a lot of scope in its use and a speed boost is the best buff I could hope for to increase my chances of survival. I could attack, evade or run away depending on the situation with this skill. It also has such a wondrous effect called zap. This could also help me lose tail in a chase. Such a wondrous skill!

As I was thinking of the countless ways I could use this skill in, I also tried to understand why the expenditure of stamina could affect me. All wonderful skill such as this usually always come with their share of negatives. Running at a speed that exceeds my body's capacity would definitely cause fatigue and damage to my body. Keeping that in mind, I have to ration the skill's uses and also maintain maximum efficiency in my movements while under its effects or else I could be potentially incapacitated right in front of the enemy.

It was a consumable, so it could either be used directly by me or I could give it to someone, as a gift or in a trade. Well, right now I didn't have the leeway to gift it and I don't have anything particular in mind to trade it for. Also, with such an amazing skill I would have to be a retard to not use it myself.

Learning the skill was not any harder than seeing its details. The skill book followed my will and vanished being replaced by another notification.

Skill 'Lightning Steps' has been learnt.

I nodded in satisfaction before continuing to explore and experiment with the inventory. First, I tried to place a pen into it but nothing happened. Then I plucked a leaf from the plant I used in the fight, which was lying on the ground beside the chair, and tried to place it into my inventory and again, I was met with the same result.

Neither biotic nor its counterpart could be placed into the inventory. So, I concluded that no objects can be placed into the inventory, barring the possibility of the objects granted by system being able to make their way in, and the objects granted by the system are deposited into the inventory.

Next, I went back to the main panel of the interface. There, the equipment tab still remained empty but my skills tab contained two skills – Perception of Death and Lightning Steps.

I expanded the skills tab to get another look at the skills, especially perception of death, which I've only briefly glanced before the fight.

Active skills:

1. Lightning Steps:

Increases your speed by [+50% * agility] for 20 seconds and can leave a trail of lightning behind while you run.

Zap: Those hit by your lightning trail will receive an electric shock with a chance of being affected by 'scalding' (damage by scalding = 0.1*agility under the effect of lightning steps).

Note: The use of lightning steps causes a massive drain to your stamina. Use under caution.

Passive skills:

1. Perception of Death:

You can sense death and make an instinctual effort to avoid it.

Note: This skill activates itself when you are under life-threatening attacks.

Just as I remembered, 'Perception of Death' didn't have much to say about itself but it was enough for me. That was one hell of a life-saving skill I got there!

Upon closer inspection, I realised that both the skills complement with the agility stat. Lightning steps is an agility buff skill while 'Perception of Death' is only worth it when I am fast enough to dodge the attack. Looks like I will have to improve my agility stat to make maximum use of them.

After familiarising myself with the skills, I went back to the main panel. Something didn't seem right. I got the feeling that I was missing something in the panel. After going through all the lines again, I realised what it was that gave me that feeling.

My interface housed the following content.

LVL. 3

Daniel H Martinez

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

Stats +

Skills +

Equipment +

Inventory +

You could see it, right? Yeah, I'm sure you could. That's right! My level changed from 0 to 3.

Wow, that monster alone increased my level by 3. In my defence, that was one very strong abomination, even though it says minor.

Now that I've levelled up, it's time to assign my stat points. That's what usually comes with a level up right? Free stat points. In some works, a particular stat increases but I sincerely hoped that it this was a freely assignable type and voila! It was.

As soon as I expanded my stats tab, I could see the addition, courtesy of my level-up.

Strength (STR) – 18

Agility (AGI) – 23

Intelligence (INT) – 83

Mana – 4

Stat points – 6

Doing the math, I received 2 stat points per level-up. Is it just me or isn't that too low? I thought I would receive a lot of points for levelling up thrice.

Anyway, seeing that there was nothing I could do and also expecting that it was fairly 2 points per level-up for everyone, I decided to assign my stat points to the stat that was in a dire need of an upgrade.

The 4 points in my mana stat was an endless source of embarrassment for me and so I appointed all the 6 stat points to mana to save me from that embarrassment, or so I thought.

Just as I tried to place the stat points into mana, I received a notification. A huge notification in red background.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

Action Denied! Stat points cannot be placed into this stat.

No…NO…. NONONONO…. NOOOO!

This was supposed to be the time I escaped from my single digit reserves. I could almost feel the tears welling up in my eyes!

I tried one more time by placing only one point into my mana stat but it seemed like I really couldn't increase my mana stat. At least the free stat points are no help in this matter.

Pledging to find ways to increase my mana stat, I placed the points into the stat that I would depend on the most due to my skills.

I placed all 6 points into agility. After careful consideration, I decided that due to the massive disparity between my intelligence stat and the other two stats, I could hold off on placing points into this stat, also taking into account the fact that I don't know how changing the intelligence stat would affect. (I was sure however that it isn't the stat that scores my smarts.)

I returned to the notifications inbox in my interface to check the level-up notices that I missed during the battle. I had to see if there were any other perks apart from the stat points.

There were no additional perks or anything of the sort apart from the points but I was glad I returned to the notifications panel because I noticed a very intriguing difference between the notifications of my first skill and my second skill.

Realizing the skill 'Perception of death'.

Skill 'Lightning Steps' has been learnt.

I learnt the skill 'Lightning Steps', using the skill book, but it said that I realised 'Perception of Death'. So, the migraines I've been experiencing since the morning were the effects of this skill? How did I get that skill? Wasn't 'skill' a concept introduced by the system and mana?

Tons of questions gathered in my mind, but right now the most important one would have to be, 'Does that mean we can obtain skills without depending on the system's rewards?'

After analysing the process of obtaining 'Perception of Death', I could make out a few key conditions to realise a skill.

One, define the skill. I had to determine an action that could be potentially labelled as a skill.

Two, Trigger. I needed an implementation of the action and a very dramatic one at that.

If I can implement the action, why would I need it to be recognised as a skill? The answer is very simple actually. Without the skill recognition, I would have to consciously and carefully perform every step of the action to execute it with perfection and the connection with the action itself is vague, but once it is recognised, I noticed that the action becomes equivalent to a familiar task that I've been doing for years, it is ingrained into my very being, the skill that is. The proficiency may vary but the efficiency is on another level altogether as could be seen from the application of 'Perception of Death' before and after it became a skill.